In the middle of the journey of my life, I am--as always--a woman on a bike. Although I do not know where this road will lead, the way is not lost, for I have arrived here. And I am on my bicycle, again.

Mid-Life Cycling

06 June 2014

An Ideal Ride, Almost

Many cyclists have their own, very particular definitions of the "perfect" conditions for a bike ride.

Me, I don't have one scenario for the ideal ride. Rather, I have a few different visions of the best conditions for a day of pedaling.

One of them came true today. The temperature was neither too warm nor too cool: For most of my ride, they hovered between 21 and 25C (70 to 77F). They started as the former and rose to the latter before dropping back as I approached the Atlantic shoreline. Further inland, the temperature rose to 30C (86F), according to the weather reports I saw. But I was spared that.

But even more important were the sky and light. The sun shone, mostly through a filter of puffy clouds that did not threaten rain. So I enjoyed the benefit of bright light without having the sun beating directly on me as it did during my Somerville ride on Memorial Day.

Plus, I encountered relatively light traffic. I figured I would, which is one of the reasons I decided to do another Point Lookout ride today. Tomorrow, the weather is expected to be the same, maybe a degree or two warmer. Because it will be a Saturday, throngs of people will flock to anyplace with a beach. But today I didn't have to be around them: Long stretches of sun, sand and waves were almost entirely mine!

The only "smudge", if you will, in this picture was the wind. It's not that I'm wind-adverse. Rather, I found myself riding with the wind on the way out, but I had to buck it on the way back. Like most cyclists, I prefer the opposite. But I won't complain: Everything else, including Tosca, was Ideal. And any day I can ride is a blessing.